As Israel’s war of self-defence in Gaza continues, some of our government’s comments and actions appear increasingly at odds with the interests of lasting Middle East peace, and our ability to play a positive role.

In particular, Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s implication in her speech on Tuesday that Australia may consider soon recognising a Palestinian state, and the decision to appoint our own special advisor to oversee the tragic accidental killing on April 1 of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom and six World Central Kitchen colleagues, continue this unfortunate trend.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Wong’s implied claims in her speech that recognising Palestinian statehood in the near future could “[build] momentum towards a two-state solution” and would not reward the Hamas October 7 terrorist massacre are simply hard to comprehend given current realities.

Despite Wong’s welcome words about Hamas having no future role in Gaza, many Palestinians would undoubtedly see such recognition in the near future as a major national achievement enabled by Hamas’ barbaric mass violence. In addition, considering such recognition now would provide a huge disincentive for the Palestinian Authority (PA) to undertake the root-and-branch reforms Wong acknowledges it needs before it could also take over Gaza’s governance, or become the nucleus of a Palestinian state.

The preconditions for a two-state peace are simply not in place, and extending such recognition before they are only makes it less likely these preconditions will ever be developed.

It’s worth remembering a few realities in this context: Hamas is more popular than the PA in the West Bank; official PA media and government pronouncements are saturated with violent incitement and antisemitism, the PA incentivises terrorist violence against Israel through its stipends to imprisoned terrorists and families of terrorist “martyrs”, and the PA never condemned the October 7 atrocities; the PA is currently so dysfunctional and corrupt it can’t even control all the Palestinian West Bank cities; and the PA has refused repeated Israeli offers of a two-state resolution incorporating Palestinian statehood over the past 25 years, and for the past decade it has refused to even negotiate on a final peace agreement at all – such bilateral negotiations being absolutely indispensable for any peace hopes.

Without changing these realities, and without the pre-conditions for peace, prematurely recognising Palestinian statehood would not strengthen forces for peace and undermine extremism, as Wong claimed, but do the exact opposite.

Wong’s speech comes on the heels of retired Australian defence force chief Mark Binskin being appointed as a special advisor into Israel’s investigations of the tragic killing of Frankcom and her colleagues. Since Israeli drone operators mistakenly targeted the convoy of aid vehicles that night, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Wong have unwisely escalated Australia’s response in a poorly thought-out manner.